Tara Setmayer : Trump has made Putin the GOP's problem

It also has a Vladimir Putin problem.As the GOP tries to politically weaponize the Ukraine conflict to question President Joe Biden's leadership, it also spotlights the party's craven hypocrisy around its inability to take on Trump for his troublesome record with Russia and ongoing affinity for Putin. This is not only a political vulnerability for Republicans, but it's also a moral failing.Republicans cannot escape Trump's role, or the role of their favorite right-wing media personalities, in carrying Putin's water for years.No matter how many statements they put out condemning Putin's invasion of Ukraine or how many blue and yellow flag lapel pins they wear, the Republicans cannot escape Trump's role, or the role of their favorite right-wing media personalities, in carrying Putin's water for years.Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., rightfully called out what she dubbed the "Putin wing" of the Republican Party recently in response to pro-Russian rhetoric prominently featured on Fox News shows by a former Trump Defense Department official. His litany of transgressions involving Putin and Russia is too lengthy to list here, but many would argue his 2018 Helsinki trip, during which he repeated an authoritarian trope calling the free press the true "enemy of the people," and a joint press conference with Putin, where he threw U.S. intelligence agencies under the bus in favor of Putin's word over theirs, was his worst.At the time, Sen. John McCain of Arizona called it "one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in recent memory," and said Trump had "abased himself … abjectly before a tyrant." Unfortunately, that behavior has continued on to the present day. When Putin formally recognized the independence of two Moscow-backed breakaway regions in the eastern part of Ukraine in the runup to his assault on the country, Trump once again couldn't help himself and affectionately called Putin "savvy" and a "genius."Some still bent over backward to avoid directly criticizing Trump for his comments.Even though many Republicans vehemently disagreed with that characterization of Putin and found Trump's comments unacceptable, even as bombs fell on innocent Ukrainians at the hands of Putin's army, some still bent over backward to avoid directly criticizing Trump for his comments.For example, Republican Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, a self-proclaimed Russian hawk, was asked repeatedly by George Stephanopoulos on ABC's "This Week" to condemn Trump's praise of Putin.